7 food startups that could change the way you eat

Americans consume more meat than they used
to. They drink less milk, but eat much more cheese. Grain
products, like cereals and baked goods, have skyrocketed in
popularity. And while the average American eats about 2% more
fruits today than in the early '70s, they also consume 2% fewer
vegetables.

The typical American meal will probably continue to change. And a
growing number of food-tech startups are trying to be a part of
whatever comes next.

They're coming up with new ways to produce meat, dairy, and
veggies - from growing vegetables in warehouses under LEDs to
engineering meat in labs. Most are focused on the consumption of
less meat and more plants, and away from traditional modes of
agriculture.

Here are some of the companies leading the transformation of the
food industry:

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Memphis Meats — Lab-grown chicken, duck, and meatballs

The company, which has raised $3.05
million, produces the meat by cultivating animal muscle
tissue in a sterile environment. The team hopes to reduce
production costs over the next few years, and begin offering its
products to the public in 2021.

Memphis Meats claims it can make beef and poultry much more
efficiently than traditional farms (by doing it indoors without
killing animals). However, as Business Insider's Ariel Schwartz
previously
reported, lab-grown meat still requires fetal serum, which
comes from unborn calves and chicks, to start the cultivation
process. Memphis Meats
told The Wall Street Journal in 2016 that it expects to
replace the serum with something plant-based soon.

Apeel Sciences — Fruit and vegetables that last longer

A Santa Barbara-based startup called
Apeel
Sciences says it has invented edible coatings
that
can extend a fruit or vegetable's shelf life by as much as
five times. That means, if you spray it on a ripe strawberry
that's starting to wither it will last about a week longer than
normal.

Made of leftover plant skins and stems, the coatings act as
barriers that slow down the decay process. You can apply it to
produce anytime during its lifespan. Apeel could even make a
bunch of bananas grown at the same time each ripen on different
days.

Six farms in Southern California, Kenya, and Nigeria are using
Apeel's products, CEO James Rogers previously
told Business Insider.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Apeel's
first products, Edipeel and Invisipeel, as "generally
recognized as safe," meaning they're fine to eat and
sell.

AeroFarms: Greens grown indoors

source

Leanna Garfield/Tech Insider

The vertical farming startup AeroFarms works inside a
69,000-square-foot warehouse in Newark, New Jersey.

The company, which has raised $95.8
million since its 2004 launch, grows greens on trays stacked
30 feet from the floor to the ceiling. Instead of natural
sunlight and soil, the crops rely on LEDs and nutrient-dense
water.

To get to mass production, workers are using data to
monitor and learn about the plants. AeroFarms' growing trays
collect 30,000 data points on things like temperature, humidity,
CO2, and oxygen levels. AeroFarms' data scientists then mine the
data to predict how future crops will grow.

Critics of vertical farming
worry about how much energy the technique wastes, since LEDs
need to shine 24-7 to produce a high volume of plants. And since
energy costs are so high, it's uncertain whether vertical farmers
can grow greens at an affordable price long-term.

The greatest promise of vertical farming, however, is that
it will bring fresher produce closer to urban areas.

"Cities have a lot of mouths to feed. We have population
growth, urbanization, and we need better ways to feed humanity
that are sensitive to the environment," AeroFarms' CEO and
founder David Rosenberg
told Business Insider. "Vertical farms are one of many
solutions."

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods: Meatless beef and chicken

caption

The Impossible Burger.

source

Melia Robinson

Beyond Meat and
Impossible Foods are two food startups that make burgers -
made mostly from coconut oil and pea, wheat, or potato protein -
from plants. The ultimate goal is to have the meat taste like the
real thing.

Impossible Foods currently supplies its signature
patty to eight restaurants in New York and
California. In March 2017, the startup - which has
raised $182 million - announced
its first large-scale production factoryon the West
Coast. The facility will churn out at least one million pounds of
meatless "meat" per month, or four million burgers, once the site
is up and running later in 2017. Earlier this year, Impossible
also said it was in conversation with McDonald's to supply the
fast-food giant with its burger.

Hampton Creek: Egg-less mayo

source

Hampton Creek

Best known for its egg-less mayo, Hampton Creek produces a variety of
vegan products, like mixes, dressings, cookies, pasta, and
cookie dough. In June, the San Francisco-based company
also
announced that its scientists are working on meat grown in a
lab (like Memphis Meats).

Hampton Creek, which has raised more than $120
million, has dealt with
plenty of controversy. Leading up to a venture capital
funding round in 2014, the startup also paid contractors to
buy its vegan mayo to appear like there was more interest
from shoppers, Bloomberg reported
in 2016. Hampton Creek claimed that the buyout program was
for quality control purposes.

Finless Foods and New Wave Foods — Slaughter-free seafood

A post shared by Finless Foods (@finlessfoods) on May 2, 2017 at 3:10pm PDT

These two startups aim to produce slaughter-free yet realistic
versions of seafood, like bluefin tuna and shrimp.

While Brooklyn-based Finless
Foods is looking to make cultured tuna from fish cells, San
Francisco's New Wave
is taking a plant-based approach. The latter startup has made
steamed "shrimp" from algae oil and pea protein, and has raised
$250,000
in funding.

Finless, which has raised an
undisclosed amount and launched in early 2017, has not
announced when its first product will become available to the
public. New Wave currently sells to some colleges and
restaurants, and has said it will launch
its shrimp in "select US markets," including California and
Nevada, by the end of 2018.